June Oak. More loon than bloom.

The month started cold, dark and breezy. I’m in tune with the cold dark bit. Perhaps not the breezy. On days like that my motivation is low, as if painting wasn’t hard enough at the best of times.

I completed “June Oak” within the first week of the month. Such pieces normally take two or three weeks, working reasonable hours. I think the result is a good one, but one has to question the pressure and isolation caused by such self-imposed deadlines.

 A lot of my resources for this series of paintings were gathered in the winter months, and didn’t address the problem of depicting foliage; a pictorial challenge I find quite daunting. However, I am happy with the solution I came up with and look forward to July and August presenting more of the same. 

All text, pros, poetry, photos & artwork, copyright Ian Gordon Craig.

My Intended Novel: The illustrations.

Above: Illustrations for the first two chapters of my intended novel

I’m typing this on a rather cold, dark, breezy, first day of June. But I’m in good spirits, having just completed the first two illustrations for my intended novel. I shall refer to them as illustrations, although they don’t literally depict events in the story as much as accompany it. And I shall keep referring to the book as “my intended novel” as a means of taking off the pressure. Completion might well be a long time coming.

All text, pros, photos & artwork, copyright Ian Gordon Craig.